Auricular acupuncture for insomnia

Well it has been a while since I’ve written. Summer vacation, procrastination, enjoying the warm months. Now the new school year has begun and Boston has changed dramatically with the return of the student population.

Here is a recent paper showing the benefit of acupuncture for insomnia. In particular this paper looked at auricular (ear) acupuncture so no body points were used. It was a meta-analysis of 878 papers, although many of the papers were dubious, as so many studies out of China are questionable quality. However even with the questionable studies removed it did lend some credence to the potential of auricular acupuncture as a treatment for insomnia.

Interestingly one of the most common ‘side-effects’ I find from acupuncture are reports that “I slept so much better”. Acupuncture definitely does something to down-wind our nervous system. A relaxation response. So I don’t believe that auricular alone is good for insomnia, but there are many traditional forms of acupuncture that can work as well. I’ve treated many cases of insomnia with success, however since I do individualized treatments they were all different utilizing different combination of points. It is important that people realize that acupuncture is very individualized and one treatment for one symptom does not fit all.